Virgin Atlantic wakes up Sleeping Beauty

February 14, 2018 12:08 pm Europe/London

Virgin Atlantic has brought back into service an Airbus A340-600 that’s been in storage since 2015. The aircraft, known as Sleeping Beauty, has been treated to a special paint job that says ‘Thanks’ to the airline’s staff.

“Bringing an aircraft out of storage is a massive undertaking,” says the Virgin Atlantic blog.

“After the myriad checks and tests, a mountain of paperwork and some very tough certification, G-VNAP was almost ready to greet her first customers. But before she did, we sent her to the paint shop of Air Livery in Manchester where she spent a week getting her new look.

“The result is a stunning ‘thank you’ to our people with a 7-foot by 152-foot message exclaiming ‘a big Virgin Atlantic thank you’ along the length of the very long fuselage of the A340-600.

“The paint scheme salutes the work of the 9,000 people around the world who keep our operation running 24/7 and includes a limited edition upright version of the ‘Flying Lady’, raising her glass to toast our people.”

Virgin Atlantic has given several of its aircraft special paintjobs including ‘Austin Powered’, ‘Spice One’, ‘Lady Penelope’, ‘Birthday Girl’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Golden Girl’ and ‘Where’s Wally’.